Department of Scientific and Industrial Research
The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (or DSIR for short) is a government-run organization in Wellington Wells that is devoted to research. Its primary headquarters and main facilities are located in the Parade District and it is led by director Richard Arkwright. Events in We Happy Few Act I Arthur Hastings enters the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to acquire a Frammistat so he can lift the quarantine from the Wellington Health Institute and reach the Broadcast Tower. Once he enters the building, he realizes that Richard Arkwright has locked all entrances to the foreman's office where the Frammistat is and does not let anyone enter. Arthur deduces that he will have to find another way in. After inspecting some of the machines present in the testing area, Arthur gets the "brilliant" idea to rig them up in such a way as to allow him to smash a hole through the wall of the foreman's office, granting him entry. Arthur fetches the necessary spare parts to repair the contraptions, rigs them up in such a way that activating them will cause a highly destructive chain reaction and then turns on the power, causing huge explosion that ends up blasting a huge hole into the wall of the foreman's office. After making his way there, Arthur is greeted by Richard Arkwright who is overjoyed by Arthur's scientific acuity, as while rigging up the machines to force his way in, Arthur just fixed four of them and managed to cause an intentional chain reaction, far exceeding the combined job performance of the entire staff. Arkwright even offers Arthur a job, to which Arthur replies that he will think about before leaving the complex for the Wellington Health Institute. Act III While gathering up the resources for constructing a hot-air balloon to allow him to escape the city, Ollie Starkey realizes that he needs to obtain a tank of Hydrogen gas in order to run the balloon. The DSIR is the only place in Wellington Wells that has Hydrogen gas and Ollie departs for the Parade District. Due to Arthur having illegally lifted the quarantine earlier, Plague Wastrels are now running rampant throughout the Parade District and thus the DSIR building has been put on high alert and a heavy detail of Red Bobbies has been stationed there for guard duty. Ollie infiltrates the complex to get a full Hydrogen tank for the balloon and is eventually able to find one. However just as Ollie is preparing to leave, an employee accidentally discovers him, takes him for a Plague Wastrel and alerts the security, causing the facility to go into lockdown. Finding no other escape route, Ollie uses a nearby pneumatic cannon to launch himself into the foreman's office through the hole Arthur made earlier and once there, he convinces Richard Arkwright to lift the lockdown. Trivia * There is an exhibition in front of the entrance which shows various hypothetical devices that the DSIR is researching and developing and are predicted to come into widespread use 20 years into the future, in 1984 (We Happy Few takes place in 1964). ** One of the devices, which is a typewriter that, according to the signage, writes down whatever the user says to it, is eerily similar to the speakwrite machine in George Orwell's terrifying Nineteen Eighty-Four dystopian novel, set in the same year. Category:Locations